Decided to open with a little festive cheer. The holly bush at the gate. Always difficult to decide if it's all Derek's next door, or partially ours. Not that we are going to fall out about it. But it always seems to have more berries than the one solely in our garden. Twas ever thus ...............Quite a cold day, temperature been down to 4C and frost is forecast for tonight. Fortunately the wind seems to have dropped. There were tornados in London which caused widespread damage. Not at Palmers Green though.
Shopping this morning and a big order at the butchers. Tracy is coming for lunch on Sunday and has asked for her customary lamb. However, it is going to be 'shoulder' rather than 'leg', and it's some years since I cooked a 'shoulder' but looking-forward because I always consider the flavour superior.
It was 'Strictly Come Dancing Tonight' which we both thoroughly enjoyed. Y voted for Mark, and he was very good. However, I voted for Matt and Lilia seen here with Tess who is one of our favourites. She is so good at the live show. aspect of things and comes across as a lovely warm-hearted northern girlMatt wasn't bottom of the poll but I think he needs my support. He is incredibly good and it is hard to believe he is a rugby player by trade.
My vote kept him in. And Y's vote kept Mark in.
Unfortunately, little Louisa who I understand is in Eastenders went out. It came down to a 'dance-off' tie-breaker between her and Emma and Emma won, deservedly so I think.
We put a tape in for The Culture show so we have it to look forward to. Simon Scharma on Mark Rothko was quite interesting but it was a very difficult subject to deal with on the small screen. The Scharma show includes drama-documentary and there was some rather silly episode of an actor playing Scharma as a young student visiting a allery. Ah well!
Rothko's are large and you really need a large room in a gallery to get the effect. Some years ago I visited the gallery reserved forRothko at The Tate and they were extremely mpressive. My feeling though that all those examples of his work, all together, was not a wise choice.
I've tried to subdue the reds in the holly and the TV pictures, for Bungus's benefit. He does moan-on-so.
Byeee.............................
1 comment:
Not wishing to let you down I’ll say the berries ARE a bit bright. But being small scale it is rather cheerful, and seasonable.
The law, as I understand it, and difficult as it may be to enforce, says that anything rooted in a neighbour’s garden belongs to them in its entirety (but different in France, where, I am led to believe, anything within 2 metres of a boundary is treated as belonging to the neighbour). So technically, although you can trim that which overhangs, you are under obligation to offer to return it. This seldom causes any friction (we have always made a point of telling our good neighbours to make use of apples on the one side, raspberries, loganberries, cherries and greengages on the other) but we do now have something of a particular difficulty as you will appreciate! Before the troubles started, THAT neighbour always used to ask if he could come and cut overhanging holly (with berries, unlike ours) from his bush (we said ‘Yes’, naturally) but last year I saw him pulling it back through the fence to cut it surreptitiously. He presumably did the same this year (unless Stephanie decided to beat him to it!).
I recall walking in Wellow Woods some years ago on the day after a whirlwind had obviously cut its swathe through the trees. I am sure they must be a much more common phenomenon than is supposed but usually occur in uninhabited areas and are therefore unobserved. I have seen waterspouts off the east coast on several occasions, without the benefit of alcohol.
You have heard of the black sheep and will know that lamb is my personal bete noire. Therefore it will come as no surprise to you to learn that shoulder of lamb is one of my greatest dislikes because it tastes far too much of the FAT and ammonia (not as bad as the unspeakable breast, I accept). Only lean leg with all fat removed can pass my lips on a one-way journey. Apart, that is, from best end of neck, stewed one day, every vestige of fat removed the next day when cold, and then reheated. Or two or three loin chops, the eyes removed and carefully scraped, before being coated in egg and breadcrumbs and shallow fried (but no one apart from my mother has been prepared to do that for me).
I do, however, prefer lambs’ liver and kidneys to those of any other creature except veal (or rabbit kidneys, best of all, but you need rather a lot of them to make a meal).
It was the Community Workshop Christmas Dinner last night (Sat)so I missed ‘The X Factor’. But it was repeated this afternoon (Sun). I taped it because Sandra is over at Durban House all day today (she brought me a cup of tea before leaving at 8.30) performing ‘front-of-house’ duties for David, who is away for the day. I have no doubt that she will do it with aplomb (she can eat as much fruit as she likes). The meal last night, at The Angel in Kneesall, was very good. They paid particular ‘over-and-above’ attention to Sandra’s dietary requirements, which was impressive.
I think we more or less agree in broad terms about the Rothko programme. Not having seen his paintings ‘live’, I cannot say more about the actual paintings except that I can appreciate the point you are making.
Would you agree that a ‘’allery’ (unaspirated, sic) is probably a sort of cross between a ‘allway (or alleyway) and an allergy – certainly something to be avoided after dark.
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